jda
Allowing Ads
“Leonardo” pinhole camera 3 1/4” Focal length handmade pinhole f/263. Colorado. Scan of negative.
Thank you! The building is an old church in Sedgwick Maine that was recently restored. The light was good - not too sunny not too cloudy. I didn't make a note of how long the exposure was. The ONDU comes with an exposure chart. You read the light at your ISO (400 in my case) and aperture at F22. I had a film processor develop the film. I don't have the darkroom equip to process sheet film at home.
Interior, Oregon 2025 Ilford Delta 100, ID-11 8.5 minutes developing time. 3 hour 45 minute exposure, 3 1/4” “Leonardo” pinhole camera.
That’s a great result for a first pinhole attempt, strong mood, nice tonal range, and the softness really suits the church scene.My first successful attempt at a pinhole photograph. I used an Ondu 4X5 Rise large format. I used a filmback from my graphlex and the film was FPP Mummy 400 BW Negative Film. I am pleased considering I really have no idea what I am doing...
View attachment 414243
Interior, Oregon 2025 Ilford Delta 100, ID-11 8.5 minutes developing time. 3 hour 45 minute exposure, 3 1/4” “Leonardo” pinhole camera. f/263.
Recent image from Little Desert National Park. 4x5 /60 mm pinhole using Macophot IR820 with R72 filter. Ended up being 25 min exposu
4x5 FP4, Rodinal, homemade camera:
It's the point. The "viewfinder" is your imaginative placement of your visualization at the point where that tiny hole is and project the frame out from that point using the geometry that is built into the camera. It is a very abstract skill. You can never place your eye at exactly that point. You could even argue that there is a point in your eyeball that would have to be located there. And you would have to move the camera out of the way so your head could be there. But the eyeball itself even moves, so you might have to wonder just where IS that magic point.Larry Bullis wrote:
"That's a great crazy image. I really like the viewfinder that most pinhole cameras come with.
Imagine that your eye is where the hole is and project a frame around what it would see. How crazy is that? I love what you did with it. It's truth about where, exactly, you are.
I could not find any pictures of your pinholecamera with the viewfinder on it."
Please post a picture with your comment to use the viewfinder!
Yippee!
This is my first pin hole picture (well, that was exposed correctly). I bought a f250 8x10 and a box of edu 100 film. Managed to calculate the exposure correctly at about 45minutes. Wanted a little more of the water spurt, but hey I got the sun and everything else. Had the try pod in the pool about half a meter from the lions head.
View attachment 206053
It's the point. The "viewfinder" is your imaginative placement of your visualization at the point where that tiny hole is and project the frame out from that point using the geometry that is built into the camera. It is a very abstract skill. You can never place your eye at exactly that point. You could even argue that there is a point in your eyeball that would have to be located there. And you would have to move the camera out of the way so your head could be there. But the eyeball itself even moves, so you might have to wonder just where IS that magic point.
I have made cameras that have the hole placed at an angle toward the edge of the camera and include a vastly wide angle. I was once photographing Wall Street from the steps of Federal Hall in New York City very early in the morning, so early that it seemed like no one was around. I was more or less "dancing" what I thought the frame would be, moving my arms around. I heard someone behind me say "what are you doing". Turning around, I saw a man wearing a Smokey the Bear hat and a forest uniform that had epaulettes, braided gold ropes. It was the Chief Ranger, sort of an admiral in the National Park Service. We had a rather fun conversation. He got what I was doing.
Sometimes I draw what I think is going on. But those eccentric cameras are pretty much designed to confound the senses. I love to challenge myself that way. Other people might not think it's fun. I do.
The "Not Knowing" thing is an endless source of fun. However, you can stack the deck in your favor. For example, in the Federal Hall example I mentioned, on the way there I passed a hardware store and bought a pocket level, which I still carry daily 45 years later. Every camera I've built since then has levels built in. Maybe you noticed in the images of the ghost forest that the horizons, being very close to the top, all were aligned to the grid. Not one of them was leveled in photoshop; they were all leveled in the field.
I can't tell you how thin my pure silver pinhole material is. I start with .003 and beat them with a ball-peen hammer, which stretches the metal and produces a dome with the hole hopefully in the center. I'm sure that they are ridiculously thin. In some of my graduate work back in the dark ages I did a lot of photo etching which I fabricated into small sculptures and jewelry. I don't do much of that anymore, but it's handy in making pinholes. Silver is great, because it is so easily worked and blackens beautifully with selenium toner.
How do you make your pinholes? Do you have special tools like a microscope?
The "Not Knowing" thing is an endless source of fun. However, you can stack the deck in your favor. For example, in the Federal Hall example I mentioned, on the way there I passed a hardware store and bought a pocket level, which I still carry daily 45 years later. Every camera I've built since then has levels built in. Maybe you noticed in the images of the ghost forest that the horizons, being very close to the top, all were aligned to the grid. Not one of them was leveled in photoshop; they were all leveled in the field.
I can't tell you how thin my pure silver pinhole material is. I start with .003 and beat them with a ball-peen hammer, which stretches the metal and produces a dome with the hole hopefully in the center. I'm sure that they are ridiculously thin. In some of my graduate work back in the dark ages I did a lot of photo etching which I fabricated into small sculptures and jewelry. I don't do much of that anymore, but it's handy in making pinholes. Silver is great, because it is so easily worked and blackens beautifully with selenium toner.
How do you make your pinholes? Do you have special tools like a microscope?
Your silver sheet process for your pinholes sounds like an artist's work. I never considered silver for pinhole material. My process has been much less sophisticated. All the pinholes that I have made in the past have been in .003 brass. To make the pinhole I use the point of a sewing needle. I cut off the top inch or so, and insert the point in a pencil eraser. That gives the point stability. I carefully pierce the brass, then I repeat from the other side using a stiff backing. Then I use 500 carborundum paper and carefully sand the emerging pinhole. I repeat the process side to side until I have a clear pinhole in thinner metal.
I now have some .002 and .001 brass sheets, a new sharp fine point sewing needle, and finer carborundum paper. So I'm ready to make a new pinhole.
But, lately I have been putting time into printing with cyanotype. It's more like I have been wrestling with it. Here's a recent print.View attachment 416788
What paper are you using?
I’ve tried Strathmore printmaking paper which is horrible, so I’m using some old Cranes cover. Waiting on some Hahnemühle paper. I know the cranes is buffered..I am treating with citric acid.
what paper are you using? Are your final prints digital or analog?
I haven't done cyanotypes for a few years, and even then, I had not done them back to 1991. Then, I did a large number of them from 4x5 and 8x10 pinhole negatives, exposed to subject matter and then reloaded into the camera and exposed again in total darkness using a bare light bulb to draw with. For that exposure, I used a matte box attached to the camera to provide a limited field for the drawing.
Then, I printed them on Arches 88, which was different from the Arches 88 I'm printing on these days with my Canon printer. That version of Arches 88 was a waterleaf paper, which means that it was not sized at all. It was basically like a blotter, I guess you could say. The current version of that paper that I'm using is treated with a coating that enables digital printing.
My method at that time was to pour the solution on the paper and let it spread out through the fibers so it soaked all the way through. Moving the puddle of solution around to control it was a bit challenging. Drying it could take a long time so I built a box with three muffin fans to create a negative pressure. One side of the box was glass. Outside of that were several infrared heat lamps. I didn't want it to take days to dry. That method enabled me to print later in the same day. I really liked the long scale that I could get; very rich prints.
One serious problem with that method was that it took a very long time to wash the prints. If I didn't get it all out, stains would eventually appear around the image. I probably would not do it that way now because it requires using too much water. We live in a different world now.
Now I'm in a different situation. I have very limited darkroom access and vastly diminished space of any kind. I've turned my attention to my 65 year collection of images, much of it completely new to me, and gone totally digital for my production. It's a new life.
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?